IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-00263661.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From Formal Subsumption to General Intellect: Elements for a Marxist Reading of the Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism, in Historical Materialism

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo Vercellone

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Since the crisis of Fordism, capitalism has been characterised by the ever more central role ofknowledge and the rise of the cognitive dimensions of labour. This is not to say that the centralityof knowledge to capitalism is new per se. Rather, the question we must ask is to what extent we canspeak of a new role for knowledge and, more importantly, its relationship with transformations inthe capital/labour relation. From this perspective, the paper highlights the continuing validity ofMarx's analysis of the knowledge/power relation in the development of the division of labour. Moreprecisely, we are concerned with the theoretical and heuristic value of the concepts of formalsubsumption, real subsumption and general intellect for any interpretation of the present change ofthe capital/labour relation in cognitive capitalism. In this way, we show the originality of the generalintellect hypothesis as a sublation of real subsumption. Finally, the article summarises keycontradictions and new forms of antagonism in cognitive capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Vercellone, 2007. "From Formal Subsumption to General Intellect: Elements for a Marxist Reading of the Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism, in Historical Materialism," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00263661, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00263661
    DOI: 10.1163/156920607X171681
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00263661
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00263661/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1163/156920607X171681?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carlo Vercellone, 2008. "La thèse du capitalisme cognitif : une mise en perspective historique et théorique," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00401880, HAL.
    2. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and How Do Capitalists Divide Labour? From Marglin and Back again through Babbage and Marx," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 254-272, April.
    3. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and how do capitalists divide labor? From Marglin and back again through Babbage and Marx," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00763837, HAL.
    4. Laurent Baronian & Carlo Vercellone, 2013. "Moneta del comune e reddito sociale garantito," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00819014, HAL.
    5. Emrah Karakilic, 2022. "Why Do Humans Remain Central to the Knowledge Work in the Age of Robots? Marx’s Fragment on Machines and Beyond," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 179-189, February.
    6. Andrea Fumagalli & Stefano Lucarelli & Elena Musolino & Giulia Rocchi, 2018. "Digital Labour in the Platform Economy: The Case of Facebook," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, May.
    7. Jeon, Heesang, 2015. "Knowledge and Contemporary Capitalism in Light of Marx's Value Theory," Thesis Commons g5njk, Center for Open Science.
    8. Carlo Vercellone, 2008. "La thèse du capitalisme cognitif : une mise en perspective historique et théorique," Post-Print halshs-00401880, HAL.
    9. Katarzyna Gruszka & Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle & Ernest Aigner, 2020. "Planetary carambolage: The evolutionary political economy of technology, nature and work," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 273-293, November.
    10. Jean-Marie Monnier & Carlo Vercellone, 2017. "Basic income as primary income [Le revenu de base comme revenu primaire]," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01486202, HAL.
    11. Monnier Jean-Marie & Vercellone Carlo, 2014. "The Foundations and Funding of Basic Income as Primary Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1-2), pages 59-77, December.
    12. Fumagalli, Andrea & Lucarelli, Stefano, 2008. "Cognitive Capitalism as a Financial Economy of Production," MPRA Paper 27989, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Ben Fine, Heesang Jeon, Gong H. Gimm, 2019. "Value is as Value Does: Twixt Knowledge and the World Economy," Fiscaoeconomia, Tubitak Ulakbim JournalPark (Dergipark), issue s1.
    14. Karakilic, Emrah, 2019. "Rethinking intellectual property rights in the cognitive and digital age of capitalism: An autonomist Marxist reading," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-9.
    15. Rotta, Tomás N. & Teixeira, Rodrigo A., 2018. "The commodification of knowledge and information," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 19448, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    16. Allen J. Scott, 2008. "Resurgent Metropolis: Economy, Society and Urbanization in an Interconnected World," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 548-564, September.
    17. Correa Romar & Rao D. Tripati, 2014. "A Heterodox Economics Critique of Financial Liberalization," Journal of Heterodox Economics, Sciendo, vol. 1(1), pages 79-99, June.
    18. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and how do capitalists divide labor? From Marglin and back again through Babbage and Marx," Post-Print hal-00763837, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00263661. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.